BOOK CHAPTER (124-134)
KEYWORDS
DOI: 10.13166/WSGE//BVLF4208
ABSTRACT
In this new era of the fourth industrial revolution that we are living in here, we are
increasingly aware of the immense possibilities and potential of technological development
that lie ahead and of the increasingly important role that artificial intelligence
is assuming in the scientific field but also and especially in the daily life of all of us.
Today, artificial intelligence affects almost all aspects of life: science, culture, art
and law. Surely it has improved, from different points of view, each of these areas, but,
at the same time, since this evolution is fast and unstoppable, it has highlighted the
gaps that the legal system presents in these sectors. Jurisprudence is making a huge
effort to keep pace with technological evolution but despite this, questions that need
answers, possibly as soon as possible, often arise.
Thus, in the field of artificial intelligence, an interesting combination under the
legal aspect is that between works of art or intellectual property and legislation, with
particular regard to copyright. In fact, creativity, both scientific and artistic, has always
been considered as exclusively belonging to the human being, to man, as it was
believed that only he was capable of original and autonomous intellectual creation.
Almost in all of the existing legal systems, this is precisely the principle underlying the
legislation concerning copyright: all creative intellectual works that belong to science,
literature, music, figurative arts, architecture, theater and cinema, regardless of the way
or form of expression, are protected and safeguarded. The prerequisite for recognizing
copyright, also admitted by jurisprudence, is the causal link between creativity and
personality, considering that the work reflects the personality of its author.
The issue presents difficulties, however, when it is a machine or a robot to carry
out a certain work of genius in one of the aforementioned fields.
How can the legislator, whether Italian, Albanian, European or international,
regulate this new legal reality linked to a work created by artificial intelligence? To
whom do the authorship and the rights of economic use of the work belong in this
case? Can we talk in this case of a moral right? What is the most suitable type of
protection that can be given to such works and through what methods, given that all
the legal rules on the subject presuppose human creative activity?
Basically, in the case of the creation of a particular work by an artificial intelligence,
can robots have intellectual property rights? Can they have liability towards
third parties?
In this article we will try to shed some light and give some answers to these questions
imposed by the reality we are living in, based on the current legal framework
in the field of copyright, the considerations of the doctrine and also the analysis of
certain concrete cases such as that of the “Portrait of Edmond Bellamy”, a portrait
made entirely by an AI and sold for $ 432,500, and that of the selfie made by a macaque
monkey with the camera of photographer David Slater.